Political Quotes

“today, I rise to join this bipartisan group calling for support of the USA FREEDOM Act. I want to begin by thanking my friend and colleague from Utah for his hard work and effort on behalf of the American people on this, my friend from Vermont for his actions also, and other Members of this Chamber. Together, what we are trying to do is bring transparency, accountability, and, most importantly, freedom to the American people-- freedom from an unnecessary and what has now been declared an illegal invasion of American's privacy. I am talking specifically about section 215 under the PATRIOT Act. Just last week, a Federal appeals court ruled that this National Security Agency program that collects Americans' calls--these records are now illegal. Our national security and protection of our freedom as Americans are not mutually exclusive. Allowing the Federal Government to conduct vast domestic surveillance operations under section 215 provides the government with too much authority. This court's ruling only reaffirms that the NSA is out of control. Under section 215, the FBI can seek a court order directing a business to turn over certain records when they have reasonable grounds to believe the information asked for is ``relevant to an authorized investigation of international terrorism.'' However, the NSA has wrongly interpreted this to mean that all--all--telephone records are relevant.…”